BizSense Beat is a weekly collaboration between VPM News and Richmond BizSense that brings you the top business stories during NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.
Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of January 10, 2025:
Chesterfield to get its first Whole Foods store at upcoming Midlothian Depot project
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Jack Jacobs
Whole Foods has set its sights on the corner of Midlothian Turnpike and Alverser Drive for what’s expected to be its first store in Chesterfield County.
The grocery store chain has signed on as the anchor tenant of the upcoming Midlothian Depot project from Atlanta-based developer SJC Ventures.
SJC principal Jeff Garrison last week confirmed Whole Foods’s long-rumored involvement in the project and said his company plans to break ground on the sizable mixed-use development this week.
In addition to a 36,000-square-foot Whole Foods, Midlothian Depot will also feature additional retail space alongside dozens of townhomes on a 13-acre site.
It’s ‘party on’ for local Party City stores despite nationwide closures
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Michael Schwartz
December turned out to be no time to party for Steve Fram.
As the long-time owner of the two Richmond-area Party City stores, the final month of the year would typically be a good one, with folks gearing up for holiday parties and in need of supplies from his locations at 9130 W. Broad St. and 12741 Stone Village Way.
But 2024 ended in an atypical fashion for Fram.
It was true that Party City, the long-running retailer that earlier this year had emerged from bankruptcy, had announced suddenly that it would be going out of business and closing its nearly 900 locations, including nearly 700 in the U.S.
But it turns out that among those nearly 900 stores, there remain nine franchisees like Fram who own 29 stores between them. And the corporation, according to their franchise agreements, doesn’t have the power to close those franchised locations. Nor does Fram have any intention of closing his stores. They remain open for business.
Thalhimer ends the year with $75M Westwood area industrial deal
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
A busy local developer celebrated the holidays by buying itself a sizable chunk of the Westwood area.
Thalhimer Realty Partners last month purchased the Dabney Center flex industrial complex for $75.3 million.
The 14-building property spans 55 acres northwest of the Topgolf off Westwood Avenue and totals around 642,000 square feet in buildings developed in the 1980s and ’90s. It’s fully leased to tenants such as Land of Cabinets, Richmond Cremation and Fireside Hearth & Home.
TRP, whose projects include the Diamond District and other apartment developments, has pursued flex industrial properties in the past, but the Dabney Center is one of the larger deals it’s closed in recent years.
Superstars Pizza owner planning new deli, catering hub in Museum District
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Mike Platania
A space that had once been eyed as the first Richmond location of a national coffee shop chain is now being planned as a spinoff of a longtime West End pizzeria.
Superstars Pizza and its owner Taylor Antonelli are looking to take over a former dry cleaners building at 3401 Patterson Ave. and convert it into a both a hub for Superstars’s catering operation as well as a public-facing concept.
Antonelli said he hasn’t finalized all the details on what the public-facing concept would be. City planning documents show it would be called Antonelli’s Deli and is described as a “neighborhood pizzeria/delicatessen.”
The 1,000-square-foot Museum District building had previously been planned as a location ofPJ’s Coffee of New Orleans. PJ’s went as far as getting city approval for the project in 2021, but work never got underway and the chain eventually punted on those plans.
Bank of America opens new Chesterfield branch, nears completion on Willow Lawn outpost
Reported by Richmond Bizsense’s Michael Schwartz
Bank of America just did something it hasn’t done in Richmond for a while: open a new-construction branch.
Its from-scratch location at 12200 Bridgewood Crossing Drive in Midlothian opened for business in recent weeks near the intersection of Hull Street and Bridgewood roads.
And the banking giant, which controls by far the largest share of deposits in the region, isn’t done building.
Its ground-up branch at 5000 W. Broad St. is set to open later this month across from Willow Lawn.
The bank also said it plans to spend $20 million in the next two years to update its existing local branch network, including the possibility of building new locations to replace aging outposts nearby.
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